Does our coverage of music grow out of fluctuating and dissimilar tastes, or out of an attraction to a relatively homogeneous scene? In speaking to people about the various artists we’ve portrayed, interviewed, or asked to contribute to this magazine, reactions to this question take varying stances. The truth, then, seems to lie somewhere in between. The creative output of the musicians we feature could hardly be more different—take, for example, Beatrice Dillon and Norbert Möslang, two musicians featured in our eleventh issue. At the same time, even the most disparate artists are active in similar spheres and keep returning, as Luke Younger aka Helm in an interview in this issue notes, “to the same places.”

What’s more, in the process of assembling this magazine, thematic overlap and common reference points between the various interviewees become difficult to ignore, and these perspectives, when gathered one after the other, leave behind cumulative senses of priority and impact. This issue wasn’t any different. Both Aïsha Devi and Mathew Dryhurst speak about the distribution of music and of media in general. And both Lumisokea and Lustmord are concerned with citing the influence of dub on their own music. What’s more, the above-quoted remark of Luke Younger entices us to reengage with questions about the professional and social proximity of our featured artists. The online record exchange Discogs offers itself generously for associated research, and a couple of us tend to spend hours on end browsing the catalogues of obscure labels and the side-projects of hyperactive musicians. We’ve tried, then, to depict some of the most direct connections between the artists collected in this edition. Left out is the shared turf (venues, festivals, etc.) and social connections known to us via sources other than Discogs. In any case, an exact route is never traveled twice.